A complete metrical line - as opposed to a
catalectic or
truncated line.

Accent

Usually refers to a stressed syllable within a particular
metrical pattern (e.g. iambic or dactylic meter - see
meter) - but can also
refer to an emphasised syllable due to pitch, loudness or the rhythms of
normal speech.

A poem in which the
characters or descriptions convey a hidden symbolic or moral message. For example,
the various knights in The Faerie Queeneby Edmund
Spenser are allegorical representations of virtues such as truth, friendship
and justice.

Another example of allegory is Absalom and Achitophelby Dryden. In this poem Dryden uses a
biblical scheme to satirise some of the leading political figures of his
day including the Earl of Shaftesbury (Achitophel) and the Duke of
Monmouth (Absalom).

The effect created when words with the
same initial letter (usually consonants) are used in close proximity e.g.
Ariel's Songs
from The Tempest
'Full
fathom five thy father lies'. The repeated 'f' sound is
alliterative. Alliteration is sometimes referred to as head rhyme.
Other examples of alliteration include: 'Only the stuttering
rifles' rapid rattle' from Anthem for Doomed Youthby
Wilfred Owen and the amazing five consecutive 'ds'
in The Windhoverby Hopkins - 'king-dom of daylight's
dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon'.

Verse tradition stemming from the Germanic lands and
evidenced in Anglo-Saxon epics and Icelandic sagas. The alliterative
line was normally written in two halves - with each half containing two
strongly stressed syllables. Of the four stressed syllables two, three
or even four would begin with the same sound. During the 14th century in
England there was an alliterative revival which produced works such as
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Vision of Piers Plowman
by William Langland. Below are the
opening lines of Piers Plowman

In a somer seson, whan
softe was the sonneI shoop me into shroudes as I a sheep were,In habite as an hermite unholy of werkes,Went wide in this world wondres to here.

Where a poem makes reference to another
poem or text. For example, the 14th line of The Prelude by
William Wordsworth 'The earth was all before me' alludes to
one of the final lines of Paradise Lost
by John Milton 'The world was all before them'.
Paradise
Lost, in
turn, alludes to the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis.

A poem containing multiple allusions is The Waste Land by
T.S.Eliot which makes reference to lines written by Shakespeare, Milton,
Spenser, Verlaine, Baudelaire, Marvell, Dante, Webster, St. Augustine,
Goldsmith, Ovid etc.

William Empson defined ambiguity as: 'any verbal nuance,
however slight, which gives room for alternative reactions to the same
piece of language'. Although ambiguity is not desirable in prose, in
poetry it can sometimes add extra layers of meaning. Figurative language
- such as metaphors - often create ambiguity. In 1930 Empson published a
critical work entitled Seven Types of Ambiguity.

Poem which is directly addressed to a person or thing
(often absent). An example is Wordsworth's sonnetMiltonwhich begins: 'Milton! thou shouldst be
living at this hour'. NB not to be confused with an apostrophe indicating missing
letters or the possessive case. Other examples of apostrophe include A Supermarket in California
by Allen Ginsberg (addressed to Walt
Whitman) and my own poem
Invocation.

Arcadia

Originally a mountainous area in the Peloponnese; then a
symbol for idyllic rural life. Virgil's Eclogues were set in
Arcadia. See also pastoral.

The effect created when words with the same vowel sound
are used in close proximity - but where the consonants in these words are different. In
To Autumnby
John Keats
the line: 'Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;' displays assonance due to
the repeated use of the 'i'
vowel sound. This means that these words nearly rhyme with each other.

Other examples include:

'Down some profound dull tunnel, long since scooped' from Strange Meeting
by Wilfred Owen

Or 'Round and round the spicy downs the yellow Lotos-dust blown.'
from Tennyson's The
Lotos-Eaters.

Asyndeton

Lists of words or phrases but without conjunctions.
Compare with polysyndeton.

Group of English poets including
Dryden, Pope,
Addison and Swift who emulated Latin poets such as Ovid, Horace and Virgil. The
Roman poets were writing during the reign of emperor Augustus (27 B.C. -
14 A.D.) - hence the term 'Augustan'. See
also
neo-classical.

Aureate
Language

Elaborate, latinate poetic diction employed by
certain 15th century English and Scottish poets, including: William
Dunbar, Robert Henryson, Stephen Hawes and John Lydgate.